Reading matter(s) of the month: January, 2016

I will start a monthly series of posts with a review of my “reading matters” of the month. It is just a way of celebrating my achievements, sharing books recommendations and (maybe) helping others make their “to-read” piles even bigger (I’m sorry!).

The “To-Read” pile of January, 2016:

So, since last month marked the beginning of a new year, I actually did a huge list of all the books I want to read in 2016 focused on personal development. For 2016 I have the goal of changing my habits, improving my GTD system and read more non-fiction books, including biographies (which I rarely read). The list contains books I have already added years ago, so this month I am going to share a (huge) list that contains not only the books I added in January, but also older ones, in no particular order:

The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande => GTD related because it talks about checklist. I think it can be very useful to my GTD system.

The Practicing Mind: Developing Focus and Discipline in Your Life by Thomas M. Sterner => I think I saw a recommendation of this book on a Lifehacker post. It’s always good to know how to focus.

Spark Joy: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up by Marie Kondō => last year I read her first book and made huge changes in life. This the second one: I am looking forward to reading it (it was illustrations!!)

Elon Musk: Inventing the Future by Ashlee Vance => a must read biography (or so I’ve been told) because I am huge fan of Elon Musk.

The Mindful Geek: Secular Meditation for Smart Skeptics by Michael Taft => Part of my quest to dive deeper into meditation.

Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi => I am really curious to know about “THE FLOW” and how to get there.

The Information Diet: A Case for Conscious Consumption by Clay A. Johnson => I think it might contain some valuable information on how to deal with lots of information.

The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload by Daniel J. Levitin => another one about how to deal with too much information.

My Life on the Road by Gloria Steinem => the first of the Book Club about Feminism created by Emma Watson called “Our Shared Shelf” (check it out on Goodreads). I will be a little behind the schedule, because this was their January pick.

Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell => I am always interested on the success of the non-conventional.

The Dorito Effect: The Surprising New Truth About Food and Flavor by Mark Schatzker => I want to know what’s inside processed food (and be scared!)

Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal by Nick Bilton => I want to know how the 140 character revolution started.

Abundance: The Future is Better Than You Think by Peter H. Diamandis => a little bit of optimist is always good!

Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us by Michael Moss => Another one o get a little scared about the food industry.

The Innovators: How a Group of Inventors, Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson => this book has been on my list for a long time now!

Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy and the New Science of Desire by Martin Lindstrom => Consumption or Consumerism?

An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield => I am a huge fan of Chris Hadfield!

Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium by Carl Sagan => one of my favorite authors!

Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins Of The Internet by Katie Hafner by Matthew Lyon => I want to know how the internet came to be.

The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives by Leonard Mlodinow => a friend of mine recommend me this almost a decade ago. I think it’s time for me to read it!

168 Hours: You Have More Time than You Think by Laura Vanderkam => I love to read about time management and productivity and this one seems nice.

Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet by Andrew Blum => I bought this book 3 years ago because I wanted to know how is the internet, physically speaking, literally.

Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion by Sam Harris => I am curious to know what this man has been talking about.

The “Read” list of January, 2016:

This month I finished reading two books. One of them has completely changed the way I think about my routines and life goals. The other was just fun and a bit silly:

The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life (Before 8AM) by Hal Elrod => the first book of 2016 about personal development and I can say that it was an intense reading. Because of this book I totally embraced the morning person inside me.

Radiance (Wraith Kings, #1) by Grace Draven => this goes into my “guilty pleasure fiction” pile. I didn’t enjoy it so much maybe because it had a young-adult feel.

The “I started reading but haven’t finished yet” pile of January, 2016:

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain => I am loving this book! I consider myself an introvert and this book resonates deeply with me! And also the title of the book is fantastic!

L’île mystérieuse by Jules Verne => it’s from a classic French author and it’s part of my “French Learning” project. It is a long book, so I’ll probably take a few more months to finish it.

And that’s it! I am actually now a little bit scared of my “To-read” pile but (hopefully) I’ll be able to tackle it until the end of 2016.

I will probably continue adding more books to my “to-read” pile but I’ll try to leave the new ones on a “someday/maybe” list because the ones I listed above are truly the books I’ve been wanting to read for a while so they have priority!

I also have an endless list of fiction books to read, but I haven’t decided yet which are my favorite ones because I started this year focusing more on non-fiction.

And, as I’ve been doing since 2012, I joined the Goodreads Reading Challenge with a goal of reading a total of 45 books in 2016 🙂

If you want to see a glimpse of all the books I read in 2015 click here.

What about you? Do you plan on reading more fiction or non-fiction this year? Do you also have an endless pile of books to read?